


The Overseer

by Starb_uck



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Coercion, Conditioning, Cylons, F/F, New Caprica, Prison, Punishment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-18
Updated: 2016-03-18
Packaged: 2018-05-27 13:37:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6286771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starb_uck/pseuds/Starb_uck
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On Cylon- occupied New Caprica, an initially defiant Starbuck is "persuaded" by D'anna Biers into becoming the overseer of a human work gang. Things heat up when Lee and Dee are captured whilst on a sneak mission onto the planet, and Starbuck is forced to make a very difficult choice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Hunter

**Author's Note:**

> My usual fare. If not like tags, please not read.
> 
> Same as with my other stuff already posted, there's more of this to come, if there's any interest. If it helps, this one might have a happy ending. I say might :)

"It's quite simple, really, Captain. I need an area of rocky ground prepared in order that the new detention wing can be added to the facility. The site has been chosen and it remains only to be levelled. The labour will be provided from the prisoners, and any additional resources required will be obtained from the local population, of course". 

"Of course". Kara agreed, bitterly. "So you've got your human labour gangs all lined up, ready to build new prison cells for them and their families and friends to be tortured in... still not seeing where I fit into all this, though?" 

She still hadn't touched her tea, although it was a bitterly cold day and she ached to wrap her hands around the steaming mug. The Three smiled and took a sip from her own cup. 

"Now, don't be like that. You know, this tea really is rather good, Captain. You should try it. Hinto berry. It's one of the only things that grows in the northern wastes, and requires a certain... *effort, shall we say, to procure it?" 

Kara stayed silent. She knew about the hinto berry. It was one of the few natural delicacies they'd discovered on this godsforsaken rock, tasty and nutritious but difficult to get hold of. The Cylon occupiers had discovered a great weakness for it, and demanded the berries in great numbers. It was one of the worst details to be assigned to, one usually reserved for difficult prisoners, or those who needed to be got out of the way. It involved month-long trips into the northern mountains, long weeks living in freezing conditions with substandard rations and clothing, weeks doing nothing but grub in the rock solid ground searching for the elusive spiky-leaved plant with its load of minuscule berries. It was backbreaking, soul-destroying labour, and she'd heard that the survival rate among the human labour gangs for one of these trips was something like 60%. 

"I'll pass, thanks". Kara had to make a real effort to keep her voice even. 

Three sniffed. "As you wish". She smiled as she heard the human's stomach growl. She knew it hadn't had a square meal in over a week, as it had been out on a long range hunt. She was planning to bring out bowls of stew next. 

"Now. You asked where you fit in with our plans to prepare the site for the new wing. It's actually quite simple, Captain. I need that ground leveled, and I need the job done quickly. If I assign one of our people to the task, he or she would need eyes in the back of their head just to avoid getting a pick axe planted in it". She sniffed distastefully. "You humans are so unnecessarily violent". 

Starbuck's eyes widened at the absurdity of this statement, but before her mouth could betray her into breaking her forced calm, Three continued. 

"I'd have to send replacements every other day, which would take time, and during which no useful work would be accomplished. It wouldn't be very.. *efficient, would it, Captain?"

Still fighting to reign in her rising temper, Starbuck shook her head. 

"I suppose not. But I still don't see what all this has to do with me? I'm just a humble range rider". 

Her eyes belied her self-deprecating tone. Every few days she led a small team into the wilderness to hunt for fresh meat for the colony. There wasn't much game about, and what little there was was scattered and wild, but it beat all to hell sitting in a cold tent waiting for the grain ration to arrive. Or sitting in a detention cell. The job had naturally been subject to a change of command since the occupation, and instead of reporting to Saul, who was now languishing in a detention cell of his own, she was required to attend twice-weekly update sessions with this Three, D'Anna Biers. It had been several weeks now, and she found that the woman still repulsed and fascinated her in equal measure just as much as ever. 

D'Anna smiled and set down her mug. "You do yourself a disservice, Captain. You're far more than that. Top Gun of Galactica, I understand?"

She did that a lot, threw in some random fact that kept Starbuck aware that the Cylon knew who she was and what she'd done in the days before the settlement on New Caprica. It was one of the many things that kept the pilot so off balance around her. 

"Yes, Top Gun", she mused, rubbing her chin thoughtfully with her fingers. "And Commander of the Air Group on Pegasus for a while, too, I understand?" 

Starbuck didn't reply, waited for her to get to the point. 

"Hmmm. CAG. A position of no little authority, as I understand it. Responsive for the wellbeing of others, organising them, planning missions, making decisions on their behalf.. All valuable leadership skills, Captain".

Where the frak was she going with this? Kara felt her patience beginning to run thin. 

"So, you want me to train your guys, give them tips on how to get the most out of their labour gangs, is that it, Ms Biers? Maybe you want me to show them how to run a briefing? I could sit right at the front and yell at people I've known for years. Hey, great idea!"

Three broke into her diatribe. "No, of course not. Nothing like that. And I've asked you, more than once, to call me D'Anna".

There it was again. The simple request, quietly spoken, so difficult to refuse without sounding like a rude idiot, but compliance sounded like just so much collaboration. First name terms with the frakking Cylons, indeed. She ignored the bait. 

"So if it's not that, then what?"

Three leaned back in her chair and steepled her fingers together. She smiled at Starbuck and opened her mouth, but before she could say a word there was a gentle knock at the door. 

"Yes.." Three barked impatiently. The door opened to reveal a girl holding a tray from which steam was gently rising. 

"Ahah! Lunch is served! Set them down here please, Lucy. Thank you". 

Kara fancied she saw the girl give her a look of reproach as she left, and she wanted to cry out to her, tell her that she wasn't a collaborator, she wasn't! But the door had clicked shut once more and the moment was gone. 

Three lifted the lid of the casserole pot and sniffed appreciatively. "Oh, yes! Just the thing for a cold day! I think you'll like this one, Kara. You don't mind if I call you that, do you? Hmmm?" 

Kara didn't answer her. She barely even heard her. Her whole attention was fixed on the casserole dish in front of her. Steam rose gently from it, and with the steam came the most amazing smell she'd ever known. Meaty, thick, some kind of a stew.. she could smell onions... Her stomach gave another involuntary growl, this one louder and seeming to go on for ever. 

She closed her eyes in embarrassment as D'Anna laughed. "Venison, Captain. One of my long-range patrols ran across a herd. Seemed a pity not to take advantage and take down a few stragglers, although of course I've no desire to take your job away from you. At least.." here she smiled, "at least not permanently". 

Ahh! So now we were getting somewhere, finally. What was this bloody woman planning for her? But even this seemed to be part of the Three's calculated attempts to keep her off balance, constantly on the back foot. Whereas before she just wanted D'Anna to get to the damn point, now, when she seemed prepared to do so, all Kara could think about was the stew before her. 

Her stomach growled again and she licked her lips involuntarily. She couldn't tear her eyes from the pot. The Cylon followed her eyes and smiled. She knew what Kara's daily diet consisted of. Grain, when there was a ration. Lichen and bark from the trees, when there wasn't. Some kind of pulpy gruel the pitiful humans made out of pine needles and cardboard. She also knew that when the rations came in, the woman before her gave most of hers away to the sick and the needy. 

"Why do you do it, Captain?" she asked now, changing the subject once more. "Huhhh?" The response was distracted. The stomach growls were continuing, seemingly never ending. D'Anna wondered when the woman had last eaten anything at all. 

"I'm wondering what it is that motivates a person to give all of their proper food away to others and to survive on a diet of moss and sedge worms". 

When the pilot made no move to answer her, Three reached out to lift the lid of the casserole pot. As she did so, the clouds of steam increased in volume. The human actually groaned now, leaning forwards to put her head into the delicious vapour. Her eyes closed in ecstasy. Three watched her in baffled amazement. She had no idea at all what it must feel like to be so damned hungry you act like you're having the best orgasm of your life when someone takes the lid off a stewpot. No idea what makes a person give away all their food, leading to them ending up in this exact situation. She felt suddenly angry. The human wasn't looking at her, had had all its attention focused for quite some time on the pot on the table. Not acceptable. 

"Kara!!" she snapped. 

"Hmmm? Oh.." Starbuck gave herself a shake, both physical and mental. "Sorry. I was miles away".

"No, you weren't. You were right there, in that pot. And I asked you a question, which you ignored".

Starbuck kept her eyes on the other woman with a colossal effort. The aromas drifting from the pot were calling to her, enticing her.. She forced her mind to concentrate. A question.. Oh yes. Why did she insist on giving all her food away? She swallowed, looked down. It wasn't an easy one to answer. 

"I.." She broke off. No easy way to say this without either incriminating herself or giving too much of herself away. This woman was dangerous, she knew that, she'd heard the rumours. Although in the weeks since she'd been reporting to her, the Cylon had yet to lay a finger on her, had treated her with nothing but courtesy and faux respect, Starbuck knew that she couldn't trust her, and that she couldn't afford to let her guard down, not even for a second. 

The truth was that she gave her food away in order to assuage the crippling guilt she felt for working for the Cylon occupiers. Even though she was providing a valuable service, bringing in much needed meat for the beleaguered colonists, even though her position enabled her to help people secretly in a way she wouldn't be able to otherwise, still she felt guilty every minute of every day. She felt eyes upon her wherever she went, seemed to hear the hiss of *traitor, *collaborator, behind her as she walked down the streets of New Caprica City. So giving her food away was a means of atonement, a way of making it up to the people. She guessed it was the only reason she hadn't woken up to a knife in the back. Yet. 

"Captain? I'd be grateful if you'd afford me the courtesy of an answer". 

There was a dangerous edge to the woman's tone now. Kara knew she'd have to speak, and soon. She searched desperately for words. 

"I.. I want to help people, Ms Biers. I don't need the food as much as some, and there's not enough to go around. I can survive on what I can find, and..."

"Three statements there that need correction, Captain". The Cylon interrupted her, and now she looked mad. Kara swallowed. 

"I've told you on several occasions now to call me by my first name. If you persist in disobeying my request, there will be consequences. Do you understand that?" 

Her voice had hardened and risen in tone. Not so friendly any more, Starbuck thought. The snake was showing its true colours at last. She was almost relieved.

"Yes, ma'am. *D'Anna.." She hastily corrected herself. 

"Good. Secondly, you give to the weak, and the sick, food which should be going to you, one of the young, healthy and strong. Tell me, what is the benefit of nurturing those who'll likely die soon anyway, at the expense of your own health? It isn't logical!"

Starbuck said nothing. She didn't expect this Cylon bitch to understand. 

"And thirdly, you tell me that there isn't enough food to go around. Now I think you know that this simply isn't true, Captain. Our researchers and scientists have robustly tested the amount of nourishment required to sustain human life, and we ensure that this amount is diligently provided to your people. We aren't monsters, you know, Kara". She smiled, her voice calm again. 

Starbuck bit back a bitter laugh. Not monsters? They'd taken over all the day to day running of the colony, taken over everything the humans had worked so hard to achieve in the inhospitable conditions of New Caprica. They controlled the food, the water, the sanitation, everything. And the "nourishment" they provided, the rations supposedly enough to sustain human life, was little more than pigswill. The human population of the planet was still living and breathing under the rationing system, sure, but they were weak, grey, so thin and malnourished that their very bones seemed to be trying to escape, jutting out beneath their skin. Starbuck was convinced that this was a deliberate tactic. Keep the humans so weak, so feeble, that they'd be in no condition to mount any kind of resistance to their oppressors. 

"Yes, D'Anna". She had to fight to keep the blank, neutral look on her face as she replied. 

"Good". The Cylon smiled. She reached for the stacked bowls. "Now you'll eat your stew. You need to keep your strength up, Kara. You're very special, you know". 

She began ladling the thick, aromatic stew into the serving bowls. Starbuck's stomach growled again and she saw the Cylon's smile widen. *Dammit. 

This was one of the worst parts of her twice weekly visits to her superior. Each time, the woman laid on something irresistibly tasty, like this frakking stew. Each time, she responded to it like a starving animal, and she knew that the Three noticed each and every one of her involuntary reactions, the licking of the lips, the flickering of her eyes towards the food. Each time, she was forced, by thinly veiled threats, to eat. And as a consequence, each time she left the Cylon's office, she was stuffed full, both with rich, nourishing food such as no other human on this damn rock ever got- well, nobody other than Gaius bloody Baltar, she assumed- and with an all-suffusing sense of shame. 

She tried, as she always tried. "Uhh.. I'm really not that hungry, D'Anna.." She used the woman's first name deliberately, as she never had before. 

"I wonder if I might.. There's a child I know who.. well, he's not sick, he's young and strong, but he needs this food far more than I do!!"

She didn't add that the boy was only one among many, that all the children of New Caprica were lethargic due to their substandard diet. She thought the ploy was again deliberate- to ensure that the next generation of humans were even more cowed and feeble, mentally and physically weaker than this one. 

She knew it wasn't going to work, but somehow she had to try. She stopped as the Cylon started shaking her head from side to side, deliberately. She tsked, and wagged a mocking finger at Starbuck. 

"Kara, Kara, Kara. Have you even listened to one word I've said? I don't care about the welfare of one squalling brat in a tent. I don't really care about the welfare of a thousand such children! Because if they're to survive in the long term, the adults, their parents and protectors, must survive, and that means putting themselves first. It's simple survival, Captain! And so. I can't stop you from giving your rations away..." 

She stopped and seemed to think, her eyes going blank for a second. She came back to herself and smiled at Starbuck. 

"Well, I *could, but at this current time I'm choosing not to. But what I *can do is to ensure that you get a square meal inside you at least twice a week. I rely on you, Captain. I need you fit and strong". 

She smiled and pushed a full bowl towards the pilot.

"Eat".

*Gods, it smelt good. Starbuck swallowed. Thought about arguing some more. She thought back to the beginning, when she'd rejected the food each time with disdain and scorn. How each time she'd been forced to sit there, late into the night, while the tireless bloody Cylon spouted on and on about survival of the fittest, and how communities evolved, and how the strong must tend to their own needs before looking after the weak, and on, and on, and on.. whilst the food congealed before her and her mind started to drift away... That first time, she had eaten just to make the woman shut up, just so that she was allowed to leave and escape from her stultifying presence for another few days. The next time, her resistance had been less. And so on, until now, with the fragrant meal before her, her efforts were token at best. She knew it, and she knew that the Cylon knew it too. She drew the bowl towards her with a sigh, picked up her spoon and began to eat. 

When she was done, the food, whilst delicious, seemed to sit like a lead weight in her belly, as it always did. The Cylon stacked up the bowls and smiled at her. 

"There. Don't you feel better now, Kara?"

She knew what she was expected to say. Knew it was Biers' way of humiliating her every time without spelling it out. Replied, as she always did. 

"Yes. Thank you". 

And she felt the stone in her stomach grow heavier. Her shame threatened to overwhelm her. She felt physically excellent, full the way she only ever did twice a week. She knew these meals were the reason she was looking so much better than the rest of them, so much more nourished, the reason she was still able to run, to hunt. She knew that her physical appearance did nothing to help the whispered accusations of collaboration, served only to isolate her further and further from her own people. And yet, what choice did she have? If she refused the woman's terms, she knew damned well that she'd end up in a prison cell, or worse, and who would help the others then? So she ate, and the food tasted like ashes each time no matter how good it smelled, and each time her spirit and her will to resist crumbled a little further. 

"Good. Perhaps now, then, you're in more of a fit state to listen to my proposal".

Whatever it was, it wasn't going to be a proposal. Under the thin veil of autonomy she was granted, she knew she was just as much a prisoner of Cylon rule as those poor unfortunate souls in the detention cells. This 'proposal', whatever it might be, would in actual fact be an instruction she'd have no choice but to obey. She sighed mentally. 

"I'm listening".

"Excellent. Quite simply, Captain, I want you to oversee the work party. You're one of them, which means they won't hurt you. Furthermore, your position of authority on board Galactica and Pegasus means that they'll respect you and obey your instructions. You're used to getting the most out of the people under your command, you can spot shirkers and malcontents a mile off. I think you're going to do an excellent job for me, Kara".

She stopped and watched the human, smiling. 

Starbuck stared at her in horror. This was a step too far! This.. this would be seen as active collaboration, at best! To oversee a forced labour gang, to make humans labour like slaves for their Cylon oppressors.. No! She couldn't do it. She wouldn't. She bit back the furious refusal that threatened to spill out, forced herself to speak calmly. 

"Ms Biers.. D'Anna.. With all due respect, I don't think that I can do that. I.. They..." She stopped, helplessly floundering for words. 

"But of course you can, Captain! Don't you see that you're the best person for the job?"

The enigmatic smile on the woman's lips left Kara in no doubt that she understood the turmoil in her mind. She tightened the screw a little further. 

"Besides, what have you got to lose? I've heard what they say about you, the things they call you behind your back. Star*gut, at the moment, isn't it?"

Her smile widened into a grin as she saw the crushed look spread over the human's features. She could tell herself that she took no pleasure from manipulating these inferior creatures, toying with them, making them do her bidding, but then she'd be lying. 

Starbuck felt like crying. She hadn't heard that particular name yet. It seemed to sum up all the humiliation she felt in one small word. 

"They hate you anyway, Captain. They'll continue to hate you even if you refuse my suggestion. So why bother? And if you agree, I might be able to increase the food ration to the shanty towns, as a gesture of goodwill, and thanks for your cooperation".

*Gods. This frakking woman knew how to play her, alright. How could she refuse that? How could she say no, knowing that she could've saved whole schoolrooms full of children, babies, from slow deaths from starvation? She had no choice. She had even opened her mouth to agree, when the glint in Biers' eye made her pause. This was more than just another task. This was a test. She realised that taking this step would mean that she could never go back. If she did this, she knew that she'd be the Cylons' human lapdog forever. And each subsequent step along the road to damnation would be easier and easier. It was time to take a stand. 

"I'm sorry. I can't do this. I just don't think I can do that.. *be that, to my own people". 

She'd never directly refused one of her superior's orders before. She sat quietly, waiting for the Cylon to summon guards, waited to be hauled off to a cell to await punishment for her insubordination. She was surprised when she heard soft laughter instead.

"Oh Kara. You're so very predictable, do you know that? I had a feeling that that would be your response. You Colonial officers are just, so, *noble, aren't you?" 

Starbuck looked up in surprise, met the woman's amused stare. 

"Nevertheless, I need you to run this program for me, Captain, and run it you will. Efficiently. I've been wondering for some time how to ensure your cooperation, as I knew you'd refuse to see reason. Your stubbornness, you see, Captain, is one of the many reasons I find your company, during our little catch up sessions, so very appealing. Do you think I don't see how tightly you hold yourself in check? How you bite back on so many of your instinctive responses? It amuses me greatly to see you forcing yourself to show me respect, because of what you know I can have done to your feeble compatriots with the lifting of one, single, finger? It gives me great pleasure, Captain, to see the great Starbuck brought down to the ground with a bang, to see her own people refer to her as a monster, as a traitor, especially as I'm probably the only person who knows how hard you're fighting to help them. Oh, the irony, Captain! It's just delicious!!"

Starbuck stared at her in shock. Although nothing she'd said came as much of a surprise, it was still awful to hear it spelled out in so many words. 

"But, I forget myself, Captain". The Cylon bitch grinned at her. "I was explaining how I was searching for a carrot, or a stick, I'm not fussy, that I could use to ensure your compliance. I was just thinking that i'd have no choice but to order an execution a day until you capitulated, an option I wanted to avoid for the simple reason that if word got out, it might gain you a small amount of sympathy and understanding for your agreement. And then today, I received wonderful news, news which came as an answer to my prayers!" 

She stopped and laughed at the pilot, who still sat motionless in shock, staring straight ahead. 

"Oh, Starbuck? Are you still with us? I was just about to tell you that on this morning's reports I learned that we've taken a couple of high profile prisoners. Prisoners from your ships". 

*What?? She hadn't even known Galactica was still in orbit round this crappy rock. She'd hoped she was, of course, hoped that one day there'd be an end to this torment, but she hadn't known for sure. It was one of the things that made it increasingly easy for her to go along with the Cylon's instructions, to bow to her command, even though deep inside her heart cried out against it. 

"I see from your face that you're as amazed as I was, Kara. It seems that the two officers were a scouting party. They came in on the western border of the city, and appeared to be attempting to make contact with the 'resistance'", she stopped, mouthing this last word with contempt. 

"Of course, they picked one of our agents, and that was that. We've got them both in a holding cell, Captain. Would you like to see them?"

Starbuck's mind was whirling. This was too much to take in all at once. 

"Who.. Who are they?" she muttered. She felt both sick and excited all at once. Galactica was still here!! They hadn't been abandoned, or forgotten. 

"Oh, I believe you know them both rather well". D'Anna was smiling. "Commander Lee Adama and Lieutenant Anastasia Dualla, who is, I believe, his wife".

***

Starbuck sat in her small room. It was little more than a prison cell, really, but it had a seat on the toilet, and a private shower, and heating. It was better, far better than a tent, in New Caprica's freezing climate. It was warm, and it was dry, and it was cosy, and every moment she spent there she felt suffused with shame. 

What the hell was she going to do? D'Anna had laid things out for her in no uncertain terms. She was to cooperate with her instructions, or Lee and Dee would pay the price. She'd been taken to see them, in a cell deep within the detention centre. After the initial joy and amazement of reunion, Starbuck had stuttered out the situation in an untypically Starbuck hesitant fashion. Lee's response had been immediate, and predictable. 

"Well, you can't do it, Kara! Doesn't matter what happens to us, but you, you can help people! If they make you into their Overseer, nobody'll ever trust you again, even after we get out of this!"

Three snorted at this from the far wall, even as Dee interrupted. 

"Hey, hey! Speak for yourself, Lee! Sounds like Starbuck's already burned most of her bridges. What's one more step? I for one don't want to spend any more time in this shithole cell than I have to. And it's not as if she's being asked to hurt anyone, is it? That programme's gonna run whether Starbuck's in charge or not". 

"Wise words, Lieutenant, very wise", said D'Anna approvingly. Lee shot her an exasperated look. Starbuck thought sourly that she'd happily see Dee in this cell for the rest of her life, if she could justify so blithely what she was asking Starbuck to do. But there was Lee to consider. 

D'Anna spoke from the wall. "I think there's been a slight misunderstanding here. Kara," She used her first name deliberately, to emphasise her collaboration more fully, and saw with private satisfaction the look of disgust on Dualla's face. "Kara here assumed that if she chose not to cooperate, the two of you will remain in this cell. Unfortunately, this is not the case. In the event that an agreement cannot be reached, Commander Adama, you will be incarcerated in the communal cell block housing the sexual predators of this facility, and Lieutenant Dualla, you will join the work gang for the new hospital wing. The very one Captain Thrace is currently refusing to supervise". A long silence followed her words. 

Starbuck was probably the only person not surprised. She couldn't look at the others. In a way, she felt easier now. Before, she'd felt torn between two evils. Now, there was simply no choice, and her heart felt immeasurably lighter as a result. She turned to the Cylon. 

"Alright. I'll do it".

D'Anna smiled slowly. "Thank you, Captain. I knew you'd see reason, sooner or later. Now come on, we've got a lot to organise". She gestured to the door, guarded by two Centurions. Kara started towards it, head down. She'd never felt like such a traitor in her life, for all that she knew she was doing the right thing, the only thing she could. She felt D'Anna lay a restraining hand on her arm, stopping her, and heard her address the prisoners. 

"Thanks to Captain Thrace's generosity and cooperation, you two will remain here, in this cell. Your restraints will be removed, and you'll receive food and water. These conditions will remain unchanged so long as the Captain remains.. *reasonable". 

Starbuck heard the blood thumping in her ears, and in her face. She couldn't look her former colleagues in the eye. She couldn't even raise her head, so great was her shame.


	2. The Hunted

Starbuck stood on the sloping ground, wrapped in two thick coats, one of wool and one of misery. The labouring prisoners before her, spread out across the hillside, wore ragged prison shirts and pants, thin canvas shoes on their feet. The idea, D'Anna had explained to her, was that if they were working hard enough, they wouldn't be cold. Starbuck found that hard to believe, particularly as she watched one young man wielding a pick axe, loosening the stony ground for others to dig it up with spades. He was obviously working as hard as he could- sweat was rolling from his forehead and from his bare arms, and yet he was shivering constantly. They all were. She made a mental note to plead the issue once again with D'Anna this evening. What was the point in the entire workforce falling victim to chills and possible hypothermia? Even as she watched, she saw a woman about her own age stagger and stumble to her knees, her spade falling to the ground. She moved quickly to her side. 

"Take it easy". 

She helped the woman sit down, put a hand to her forehead. "You're sick". She frowned in concern, looking round for a guard to take the woman to the hospital. The woman pushed her hand away and tried to rise. 

"We're all sick", she muttered, adding hastily, "Captain. And I'm not going to the hospital. I can't afford to lose out on my grain- it's all my family have". 

So this was one of the civilian conscripts then. Offered a minuscule amount of food for a full day's labour, just to supplement the meagre daily rations they all received. Starbuck shouldn't have been surprised at how many people had volunteered. The prisoners, of course, were working for nothing. Starbuck sighed. 

"Oh. Well at least take my coat for a while, then. Just until you're feeling better". She made to remove it but stopped, shocked, as the young woman put out a hand to stop her. 

"No.. Please.. I mean.. It's kind of you, but.. I don't want them to think that I.." She stopped, darting a fearful look at Starbuck. 

The overseer stared at her in understanding. She didn't want to take the coat lest she be seen as a collaborator, just as she, Starbuck, was. Starbuck felt sick to her very soul. She felt tears in the back of her eyes. 

"Okay", she whispered quietly, helping the woman back to her feet. 

***

"I heard an interesting thing today, Captain. One of the guards reported that you tried to give one of the workers your coat. Would you care to explain?"

Starbuck stared at her. "She was sick, D'Anna. They're all sick. They need more clothes, if they're going to work in these conditions. It doesn't make sense to.."

She was interrupted. "I decide what makes sense, Thrace. There isn't enough cloth to go around here, and what little there is certainly isn't going to go to the labour force. You know the drill. If they're feeling the cold, then they simply aren't working hard enough. Simple, isn't it?"

"Yes, but.."

"No buts, Captain. You have your orders. Besides, I can't have you giving your own clothes away. It's like the food rations, all over again. You need to stay warm, and fed, and healthy. Understand?" 

D'Anna patted her companionably on the arm as she turned to dish up lunch. Tuna salad, today. Two full meals a day now that she was running the labour gang, and D'Anna made sure that she finished each and every one. 

***

The work went on. Slowly the hillside leveled and the ground cleared. It was back breaking work but what with the prison labour and the civilian volunteers they were making real progress. D'Anna professed herself pleased with the work she was doing. For her part, Starbuck operated on autopilot, refusing to think much about what she was doing at all. She gave the orders, supervised the work and gave out discipline as necessary. The first time had been the hardest. 

A scrawny conscript had been mouthing off all day, bitching about the work, about the conditions, about the traitorous overseer.. Starbuck had let it go as long as she could, but when she heard the word 'Stargut' whispered loudly, causing muffled laughter amongst those nearest to her, she knew she had to take action. 

"Anna". The laughter died immediately. All picks and shovels laboured diligently. They weren't in trouble. They were good little boys and girls. Anna was the one in trouble. Ha ha, sucks to be Anna. Starbuck saw the thoughts running through their heads and felt disgusted. For the first time, she hated them, these, her people. Humans, being turned into mindless slaves, willing to stab each other in the neck for the mere promise of an extra crust of bread. She forced herself to remember that it wasn't their fault, that they'd never asked to be in this awful situation. She forced her attention back to her immediate problem, the insolent girl, Anna. 

"Come here, please". 

The girl walked to her, head high, looking her squarely in the eye. She was about Starbuck's height, and about two thirds of her weight. The overseer took care not to let any of the shame she felt show on her face as she addressed the girl. 

"This needs to stop, Anna. Now. Do you understand?"

The girl smiled. Starbuck could see the thinly veiled contempt in her eyes. "Sure, Stargut".

There was a horrified silence. Tools stilled for a long moment before picking up their rhythm once more. Starbuck stared at the girl in shock at her words. And following swiftly behind the shock came the anger. How dare she? How dare this little bitch, all of twenty years old, presume to judge her? Her fist had seemed to lash out by itself, landing a solid punch on the girl's temple. She staggered, looking up at Starbuck with a mixture of pain, contempt and satisfaction. It enraged her, and she hit her again, harder. The girl kept getting up, so Starbuck kept hitting her. When she finally stayed down, her face was a mess, much like Starbuck's knuckles. She ordered two of the guards to carry the girl to the hospital, and she ordered the gang back to work. She herself sat on a rock, looking at her bleeding knuckles, hating herself. 

Yes, the first time had been the hardest, but every time after that it was easier and easier. D'Anna was proud of her. 

***

She wasn't allowed to see Lee. Or Dee, although she wasn't so bothered about that. She knew the other woman hated her because of the closeness between her and Lee, and part of her exulted in that fact. The nasty Kara, the part that relished hitting the prisoners as it enabled her to let out some of the rage she felt at her own trapped state. When she was calm, she cried sometimes, in the quiet of her own room, cried for her old life, for what she'd used to be, and for what D'Anna was turning her into. 

***

The next time she saw them was a few weeks into the levelling programme. D'Anna summoned her one evening after supper, and as they walked side by side, across the rough ground towards the detention centre, she shared with her the story. 

"Dualla tried to escape. She knocked Adama out, then called the guards, pretending he was sick. When they came in, she rushed them". 

D'Anna shook her head. "It was a stupid idea, never going to work. Why d'you think she did it?" She looked at Starbuck in incomprehension at the utter stupidity of the human race. 

*Desperation, Starbuck thought wearily. That's why. No creature is meant to live in chains. She simply shook her head in answer as they entered the brick facility. 

A palpable rage still filled the small cell. Four Centurions stood guard, weapons at the ready. Lee sat back on one of the two small cots, wearing a compression bandage on his temple and a half-angry, half-bemused look on his face. Dualla sat sprawled in the corner of the cell. Her arms and legs were secured in extreme restraints. Her lip was bloody, and she looked furious. She looked as if she'd been tossed into the corner like a throwaway piece of garbage, and Starbuck thought that she probably had. 

The two of them entered the cell, D'Anna motioning the Centurions back towards the door. The silence continued, until D'Anna broke it. She stalked to the corner and looked down, addressing Dualla. 

"Alright. I'm not going to ask why, as I suppose that's pretty obvious. You're trying to get back to your ship. Although to do so in such a way as to knock your husband unconscious and leave him behind, well.."

She tailed off. Starbuck had to agree with her on this one. She looked at Lee, rubbing his head and looking lost and confused, and she felt such a rush of anger towards Dee that in that moment she could have killed her. 

Dee looked defiant. "It was the only way. I was going to come back for him.."

Starbuck's fury interrupted her. "Did you have to frakking knock him out, Dee?? *Gods.."

Dee turned to look at Starbuck. They stared at each other for long moments, two furious women whose love for the same man had long ago destroyed any possibility that they might ever be friends. Dee's reply was softer than Starbuck had expected. 

"He wouldn't come with me. He said it was a stupid idea, told me to forget it. I thought if I did it this way, then they wouldn't punish him after I was gone". 

Starbuck thought about it. It was simple, it made sense, and it sounded like the truth. She nodded, her fury easing. 

D'Anna cleared her throat. "Okay. So we've established why, and we've done how, and now we need to look at what we 're going to do about it. Hmmm?" 

She turned to look at Starbuck, who backed off at once, arms raised. 

"Huh? Oh no, not me. I'm not having anything to do with it, D'Anna. Nuhuh".

The Cylon gave her a narrow look, one which said *You are if I say you are, but didn't push the issue for the moment. Instead, she turned to look at Lee. 

"I think it would be.. *fitting, to allow Commander Adama to choose his wife's punishment, don't you, Starbuck?" 

She spoke without looking at her, keeping her eyes on Lee. He looked like a lost little boy, Starbuck thought, and felt the threat of tears behind her eyes. 

"So", the Cylon continued, "I've decided the Commander may choose between two possible punishments. Number one; for Lieutenant Dualla to spend the night confined in the wing reserved for the people convicted of sexual crimes. It's not a please place to be, you know. Some of the noises one hears while walking past that wing are really quite.. *disturbing, if you get my meaning". 

She stopped, and surveyed Lee's face. The words seemed to have gotten through his dazed demeanour, and a look of shock and horror spread across his stunned countenance. D'Anna smiled. 

"Don't like that option, Commander? Well, you do have another. You can ask my little overseer, here," she gestured to Starbuck, "to give your wife a taste of the punishment she's been dishing out to the people on her chain gang. She's getting really rather good at it, you know".

*Oh, you *bitch!! Starbuck stared at her in horror. She couldn't even contemplate at first what she was going to have to do if Lee chose this option, as she knew he would. She was still grappling with the betrayal of being aligned with the Cylons in front of her former colleagues. The phrase 'My little overseer' sounded over and over again in her brain. Although of course she knew it was nothing but the truth. 

"So, what's it to be, Adama? Want to talk it over with your sweetheart, there?" 

Lee turned to look at the Cylon. His honest, open, beloved face was twisted in disgust. 

"This is frakked, you know that, right? Frakking frakked!!" He spat the words at her. The Cylon smiled. 

"'Frakking frakked', Commander? Not a very.. *political choice of phrase from you, is it? Nor does it do justice to your purported oratorical prowess". 

Lee ignored her mockery. He was fighting mad, lips pressed paper thin. 

"You claim to be looking after these people's best interests. You say that everything you're doing here on New Caprica is for their benefit. And yet they all look half dead, and you arrest me and my wife and continue to hold us for weeks without charges.."

"You are prisoners of war", she shot back at him. 

"We're not *at war, for frak's sake!" Lee shouted, slamming his hand onto the cot beside him. "We surrendered to you! So I demand to know on what grounds you are holding us!"

D'Anna smiled at him, seeming to make a deliberate effort to calm herself. 

"The people of New Caprica surrendered to us, Commander. You, and everyone else on board Galactica and the other ships, did not. You remained in orbit around the planet, and elsewhere. As a gesture of goodwill towards your people, we did not pursue you, as would have been well within our rights. As soon as you and Lieutenant Dualla here chose to take a Raptor down to the surface, on a devious little *spying mission, you became fair game. Thus, you are prisoners of war, and are therefore subject to detention without charge".

Lee looked deflated. What she'd said was nothing but the truth, Starbuck thought dispiritedly. She wondered where he'd go with his argument next. 

"Even if that were true", he counterattacked, changing tack like a born politician, "how do you justify the measures you've just threatened Lieutenant Dualla with? Rape, or physical punishment. Not exactly in the manual for the treatment of prisoners of war, is it?" 

His voice dripped with contempt. The Cylon looked at him in amusement. 

"You may have seen this 'manual', Commander. I have not. What I *have seen, is a human population of whining, puking little babies who need to be shown what is good for them, because they're too frakking *stupid to realise it for themselves. And no, you're right, the measures I've proposed aren't exactly standard, but they are certainly effective. In this particular case, they have the added benefit of providing a lesson to all three of you at once. You, because you will learn the responsibility of choosing the fate of another, Dualla, who will learn, one way or another, the futility and in advisability of resistance, and Captain Thrace, who will learn how it feels to provide necessary and just punishment to someone she knows well and once considered a friend. That is, of course, assuming you don't choose to throw your wife to the wolves of E block just to spare Starbuck's finer feelings? We all know about Starbuck's feelings, and yours for her..." She tailed off, smiling a vicious smile. 

In the corner, Dee gave a hitched little sob. Lee was staring at the Three as if he'd like to rip her head off and throw it to those self same wolves. Starbuck just looked at the floor. She knew what Lee would choose. She knew it was no choice at all, not really. 

D'Anna clapped her hands together briskly. "So, if we're done with the chitchat, perhaps we can all move on? What will you choose, Commander?"

Lee looked at Starbuck. His face twisted. He could see the misery on her face, he was sure that, whatever the Cylon said, she wasn't into this at all, and that she hadn't been turned into the monster they'd painted her to be. He spoke to her directly, ignoring D'Anna. 

"Kara". She didn't look up. 

"Kara, please.." 

Slowly, unwillingly, Starbuck dragged her gaze from the floor to his face. He could've wept at the expression of utter dejection he saw behind the carefully blank countenance. He knew the old Starbuck was still in there, still whole under the layers of cruelty she was being coated with. 

"Kara, I'm so sorry. You know what I have to choose, don't you?" 

She nodded once, dumbly. 

"I'm sorry", he said again, before turning back to the Cylon and spitting his answer at her in disgust. 

"You know what I'm going to choose. I can't let Dee near those animals, so I will have to ask that Captain Thrace discipline Lieutenant Dualla for attempting to escape. Even though", he spat, "even though it is the first duty of a prisoner of war to attempt to do so". 

D'Anna smiled at his furious tone. 

"Perhaps", she said. "That doesn't mean, however, that any such attempts are exempt from discipline once they fail. Now, let me ensure I understand you correctly. You want my overseer to punish your wife in a suitable fashion for the crime of attempting to escape from lawful detention. Correct?"

"Yes", Lee spat.

"Say it".

Gritting his teeth, Lee obeyed. 

"I request that your overseer", he flinched as he spoke the word, "punish my wife for trying to escape". 

"Ms Biers". 

Three was smiling. Kara could tell she was thoroughly enjoying herself. 

"Ms Biers". Lee echoed dutifully, face brick red and veins standing out on his neck. 

"Good. Well, all that talking took so long, that I think we'd better get started right away!" 

She gestured to the guards who moved forward and raised the helpless Lieutenant in one easy motion. She cried out as she hung by one bound arm from the metal fist. 

"Release her restraints". 

The Centurions did so. Dualla stood rubbing her arms in the centre of the cell. She refused to look either at Kara or at Lee, and kept her furious gaze firmly on the blonde Cylon in front of her. D'Anna smiled.

"You're quite a spirited one, aren't you, honey? I'm glad. It makes it all the more fun for everyone concerned". 

She leant forward to stroke Dee's face, and the angry Lieutenant jerked away. D'Anna's smile widened. "Yes, very spirited indeed. But enough prevarication. Remove your clothing, please". 

Dee stared at her in horror. Take her clothes off? Here? In front of everybody? Not a chance! 

"I don't think so!" she responded incredulously. 

"You don't? Well, sweetie, I *do think so, and I've got four guards here who agree with me. So please do as you're told, otherwise I'll have to have them hold you down while I strip you myself. Your choice". 

Her tone brooked no refusal. Watching her, Lee felt a wave of sympathy and horror for his achingly private wife in this situation. He could tell that there was a huge part of her that wanted to continue to resist, to prove to herself that she hadn't complied with any part of this whatsoever. As if reading her thoughts, D'Anna continued, 

"I do find myself running out of patience, however, and time marches on. If you aren't out of your clothes in the next thirty seconds, Dualla, I think I might be so angry that I'll just throw you into E block after we're done here, just for the sheer hell of it".

That threat was enough. Furiously, sullenly, Dee pulled off her combat jacket and threw it in Lee's general direction. Her boots followed, and he had to duck. He didn't know why she was so mad at him, but then realised that she usually *was mad at him when Starbuck was around, even, apparently, in these impossible circumstances. Socks, pants and tanks followed the boots, until Dee stood in the centre of the cold cell clad only in her underwear, trying to resist the urge to wrap her arms around herself. 

"Very nice", D'Anna said approvingly. Lee fought down the urge to hit her. "Now the rest".

Keeping her gaze firmly blank, Dee complied. The bra and panties didn't follow the other articles in Lee's general direction, but instead were dropped limply to the floor. It was as if, as soon as they'd been removed from her body, Dee almost forgot that they were there at all. 

When she was entirely naked, the Lieutenant stood perfectly still, head up, eyes fixed on the far wall of the cell. Her composure was impressive, D'Anna thought, as she surveyed the sight before her with appreciation. Apart from Starbuck, she hadn't seen an attractive, well nourished human in weeks. She'd almost forgotten how alluring they could be, how.. *sumptious. She was going to enjoy this. 

"Kneel down. Here". 

She pulled a pillow from the bed and laid it beside the cot. Dee stepped forwards to obey. As she did so, D'Anna gestured to the guards, two of whom stepped forwards, clanking, and pulled the Lieutenant's arms out to her sides. The motion caused her to fall forwards into the small, low cot, thus raising her delectable, dusky backside high into the air. She gasped in surprise and embarrassment. Lee made a jerky motion as if to go to her aid and immediately one of the machines by the door leveled its pistol at him. He stopped and sank back on the other cot. 

"Am I going to have a problem with you during this, Commander?"

"No.." he muttered, unable to take his eyes from his wife, naked and bent over a bed for all to see. 

"Good. Keep an eye on him, you two". This last to the guards by the door. 

The two by the bed quickly used wrist restraints to secure Dee firmly to the rails at the top and bottom of the cot. D'Anna bent over and laid a hand on the back of her neck. Dee, this time, was unable to pull away. She was able to squirm under the cold grip, however, and did so. 

"I must congratulate you on your excellent taste in women, Adama", D'Anna said, her hand slipping down Dee's spine as she spoke. It stopped just above the cleft of her buttocks, and she looked meaningfully from the woman below her, to Lee, and then to Starbuck. 

"Don't.. *touch her.." Lee ground out, barely able to contain his fury. "If this is discipline, let it *be discipline, not some pervy way for you to get your rocks off..".

D'Anna's gaze moved back to the Pegasus commander. Her eyes narrowed. 

"I don't think, Adama, that you're in any position to be giving me orders, do you? And certainly, neither is your wife". 

With this, she seized Dee's ass firmly with both hands and squeezed. Dee jerked but didn't make a sound. Starbuck had seen how determined the Lieutenant could be. She just hoped that here it would work in her favour, rather than against her. She knew to her own cost how futile it was to go up against the Cylon. 

D'Anna held Lee's furious stare and her own grip a beat or two longer, then let go. She turned to Starbuck, as the pilot had known she would. It was the moment she had dreaded. 

"Now then, Captain. Time to show these lovely people the skills you've learned, since last you saw them". 

She stepped quickly towards Lee and grabbed the pants Dualla had thrown at him. She stripped the belt from the pant loops and moved to hand it to Starbuck, doubling it over as she did so. 

"It'll be just like on that chubby piece last week, Kara. Remember how you enjoyed that one? Remember how we laughed as she jiggled?" 

It wasn't true, but Lee and Dualla didn't know that. Well, maybe it was a little bit true.. 

She had been furious with that woman, who'd called her the Cylon's whore, Biers' little bitch, Cylon cuntlicker, and various other inventive names. She'd dragged her into D'Anna's office and vented her rage as she explained what she'd said. D'Anna had listened quietly and, when she was done, had risen and gestured to a door in the far wall. Starbuck had never seen what lay beyond it, and as she passed through, saw that it appeared merely to be a bed chamber, albeit with a certain number of interesting contraptions and devices on show. D'Anna had bent to a chest on the floor and retrieved from it a belt, handing it to the surprised pilot. 

Starbuck had stood perplexed for a long moment. All the discipline she'd meted out so far had been borne out of honest rage, with her hands, feet and fists, punishment inflicted immediately and at the spot on which the infraction had occurred. This... this was something different. As she held the doubled belt, she'd felt a sense of rising anticipation. Yes. This was what she needed. This would make all the rage and frustration she felt disappear. She looked at the plump woman and smiled. The woman's cockiness had all but vanished, and her face was nervous as she looked around the room. She saw the expression on Starbuck's face, saw the belt in her hands, and backed nervously towards the door. She was stopped by D'Anna, who pulled the door closed, and locked it. She moved towards the chest and sat down. 

"Carry on, Captain", she'd said. 

Starbuck had forced the woman bodily onto the bed, tied her down and thrashed her until her arm was tired, and she'd be lying if she tried to tell herself that she hadn't enjoyed it. She'd vented her anger and her shame upon the woman who'd humiliated her in public, and it felt good. She felt hot and dreamy inside at the way the chubby woman's body had rippled and wobbled with her blows. She'd grabbed handfuls of spare flesh and squeezed, delighting in the woman's whimpers and pleas. She'd beaten her until her shrieks subsided into whimpers and her struggles ceased. Then she had thrown down the belt, staggered from the room and into the adjacent toilet, and vomited, again and again and again. D'Anna had followed her, and comforted her, telling her that it was okay, she'd done wonderfully well, that she was proud of her. She'd held back her hair, helped her wash up, held her until her tears stopped. 

***

And now she had to do it all over again. And there was, if she was brutally honest with herself, a small part of her that was looking forward to it. 

She stepped forward, holding the belt. She refused to meet Lee's eyes, although she sensed he was trying to catch her attention. 

"No holding back just because she's your friend, Captain". D'Anna. Of course. "Remember, she deserves your punishment, just like all the others". 

Yes. She did. Dee had been a bad girl, a very bad girl, and she had to be punished. Starbuck smiled. Seeing it, Lee began to be afraid. 

"Kara", he started. 

"Silence!!" D'Anna hissed. "Don't interrupt! One more sound from you, Commander, and I'll throw you *both into the perv cage when this is done!"

Lee stared at her, and at Kara. Gods, what had this woman *done to her?? She looked like some kind of animal now as she paced deliberately towards Dee. She was dressed in some uniform he didn't recognise, military in appearance, black and grey with piping and a high winged collar. Her expression was remote and yet intense. He barely recognised her from the laughing, pissed-up pilot who'd made it a game to jump from one table to another, getting all around the walls of the rec room without touching the floor. This woman was a stranger. His impression was reinforced by her voice, as she spoke for the first time since she'd refused to participate in this charade. It seemed like a long, long time ago. She laid her hand on Dee's back, just above where D'Anna's had rested. 

"Have you been bad, Dee?" Her voice was thick, that of a stranger. 

"Frak, you, Starbuck". Dee spat each word out clearly. She quivered, clearly resisting the urge to buck and remove Starbuck's touch from her body. 

"Frak, you, Dee?" Starbuck's voice sounded inquisitive, interested. "Is that what you want me to do? I can do that..." 

Her hand moved down Dee's back, the side of her hand forcing its way between the Lieutenant's buttocks. Dee squirmed at the intrusion. The hand turned to cup underneath, fingers fiddling for entry. Dee gasped. She moved her hips, trying to throw her tormenter off, but Starbuck had her other hand on her lower back, firmly holding her in place. The fingers worked on. Dee grunted in frustration. "No.." she muttered finally. 

"No?" Starbuck repeated thoughtfully. The fingers withdrew. Dee barely had time to breathe a sigh of relief before Starbuck's hand cracked down with a noise that rang out in the suddenly quiet room. Dee gasped in shock and surprise. 

"No? Well, if it's not.. *that," she prodded once more between Dee's legs, producing a jerk and a yelp, "then it'll have to be, *this".

The hand descended again, with more force behind it. Dee cried out for the first time, still more in surprise than in pain. Starbuck smiled. This was fun. How had she gone all these years and never realised just how much fun?

Watching, D'Anna smiled in satisfaction to see all her hard work paying off, to see her creation in action. Starbuck simply had no idea how beautiful and special she was. She had no idea of D'Anna's personal interest in her. She'd never given the pilot any hint of her feelings.. she hadn't frakked her yet.. Hell, she hadn't even touched her with sexual intent. But all things in good time. Starbuck's transformation was a work in progress, one which would take some considerable time to complete, but once it was done, she knew that Starbuck would be irreversibly changed, irrevocably hers. D'Anna intended to remould the officer in her own image, and to keep her by her side, always and forever. 

Starbuck worked Dee like the professional torturer she was becoming. She ignored her threats, her screams, her pleas for mercy. She used the belt on her until every inch of the Lieutenant's thighs and back were marked, and then she moved onto her ass. Saving the best for last. 

Lee knew he couldn't cry out, not so much for himself but for Dee, the thought of her being thrown into E block after everything she'd already gone through tonight just too much to bear. So he remained silent, even though he did so only by sheer force of will, as his best friend and former lover, one of the most inherently decent people he'd ever met, beat his dear wife with a sadistic, merciless pleasure even as she sobbed and begged uselessly for mercy. The tears ran unchecked down his face. 

When Dee's ass was as red and marked as the rest of her, Starbuck spoke again. "Have you learned your lesson, Dee?"

"Yes..", came the gasping reply. 

"And what is that lesson?" Caressing between her buttocks again with the edge of the belt. 

"Not to try to escape... Sir.."

Hmmm. The 'Sir' was a nice touch, Starbuck thought. A little nod to the old days. She liked it, responded in kind. 

"Very good, Lieutenant. Now, have you got anything to say to me, and to Ms Biers here, for the trouble you've caused us? For the inconvenience of making us come all the way here just to discipline your disobedient ass?"

Dee struggled with herself. It wasn't easy for her to lose herself so completely, and yet bloody Starbuck had totally undone her. She was like a different woman, cold instead of burning like fire, relentless instead of unpredictable. She was afraid of this Starbuck. No, scratch that. She was terrified. She whimpered. 

"I'm sorry.." she whispered. 

"What are you sorry for, Dualla?" Starbuck was merciless. The belt continued to trace patterns upon her tender body. 

"I'm sorry for trying to escape, and for causing you.. and Ms Biers.. inconvenience tonight... Sir". 

She was quivering. Overall, Starbuck was impressed with her self control. She'd cried, of course she'd cried, but she hadn't lost it entirely. Starbuck smiled and stood, patting the prone woman affectionately on the ass as she did so.

"Okay, Lieutenant. Debt paid". 

***

Starbuck stood silently as the guards released Dee from the bed. She wasn't ashamed any more, she was more than happy to meet Lee's gaze if he wanted to do so, but this time it was he who seemed to be avoiding her eyes. He was shaking slightly. As Dee was released and allowed to kneel upright, he went to her and took her in his arms. At his touch, the Lieutenant finally broke into heart wrenching sobs, sobs which caused her entire body to jerk, over and over, and he had to hold her tightly as if it were the only thing which would prevent her from falling apart. 

D'Anna allowed his movement without comment. The punishment was over, after all. She moved to where Starbuck stood, smiling slightly, looking straight ahead, her breathing even. She took her by the shoulders and looked deeply into her eyes. 

"I am, so very, very proud of you". 

She smiled, a smile that seemed to contain all the love she felt for this special person, this perfect pilot, before bending forwards to kiss her softly, lightly, on the lips. A benediction.


End file.
